724,000 people arrested for mar1juana offenses last year????

I completely agree that associating with people who use hard drugs is the gateway, not smoking weed.

I do partake of weed on a somewhat regular basis, but I don't mess with hard stuff. A couple of our acquaintances are really into coke but I don't mess with it because I know what it does to people and I'm pretty strongwilled about that kind of stuff.

Bottom line is that our tax dollars are being wasted enforcing mar1juana. The users and providers are, for the most part, nonviolent. I agree that legalizing it would do a lot to cut down on most casual users exposure to harder drugs.

 

the only bad part about mar1juana is that its use leads to the deaths of more diabetic horses than any other drug...

 

I do believe that hell is about to freeze over..

I agree with johnheath and find his argument to be persuasive and well thought out.

 

I concur. Great post johnheath!

 

With a drinking age of 21, it was much easier to get something from someone who doesn't care about the age limit. Alcohol didn't make me try pot. Pot was something I could easily get anytime and alcohol was much, much harder to get. Legalizing pot may get it out from the elimate that makes matters worse and keep it from younger kids assuming there is an age restriction - I'll give you that, but pot is not totally harmless. Smoke it via US bongs morning, noon and night (and all times inbetween) 7/365 for a few years and let me know how things are going - if you can still swallow (that's another personal story). I know to you current users - everything in moderation, but is pot addicting? To me it was my first addiction. Should a murder have a lighter sentence than a dealer or user - never. But once you open up the legalize this one and not that one - who's the judge? If someone wants to do pcp in their own privacy - isn't that their own business? Maybe it is - that is until they hear the voices to come wack you because you drive a blue car. Why shouldn't coke be legal? What are the guidelines?

I really don't have a say in the laws but I do have an opinion and that is keep fighting the fight. Repealling prohibition did make fewer alcoholics - it made more.

 

Nevermind

 

I'm one for the "legalize it all" camp.

First -- The Age Limits
American has it ALL back-asswards concerning recreational "extras." We teach our children the responsibility of handling an automobile before before we teach them the responsibility of handling alcohol. Big mistake. The solution: Drinking age: 17-18, Driving age 19-20. Yes. I'm serious. Even when I was 16 I didn't think that the majority of 16-year-olds where anywhere near mature enough to handle an automobile, even when sober.

Second -- Drinking & Driving
a. We have a huge problem with drinking and driving. Our legal blood-alcohol level was way too high for way too long, imo. We've finally gotten that right.
b. We don't want people to drive drunk, so what do we do? We have bars that are allowed, by law, to serve alcohol much later than stores are allowed to sell it, as someone upstream already mentioned.
c. We want to discourage people from drinking and driving, so what do we do? We continue to fight incredibly rational ideas like major improvements for public transportation (Rail, people, rail!!!!!).

Pot
a. By far one of the most ridiculous laws ever written into existence. All of my points have already been made, so I'll move on.

The Hard Drugs
I've said this before and I'll say it again: When I was in junior high school, 12-13 years old in the 6th grade, I could literally get ahold of anything: weed, heroine, acid, you name it. The hardest thing to get ahold of was alcohol.

Sorry ArtV, I understand what you're saying. To this day, pot is the only drug I've ever done, but I've seen it all, man. I know full-well what the harder drugs can do to people. A bar has the right to cut you off if you've had too much, or can refuse you service if you're under-age. A damn dealer on the street has ZERO scruples when it comes to his client's age, health, or condition. Legalize it, tax it, regulate it. With the money saved from the "War" on drugs and the money gained from taxation, the government can fund any ******* thing it wants.

Again: Legalize it, tax it, regulate it. Take the power out of the bad-guys' hands. And aside from the above points, I have a HUGE problem with the fact that there are laws telling me what I can and cannot do with my own damn body.

My thoughts concerning drugs, alcohol, and prostitution are about the only things you'll ever hear me say that Europe does a MUCH better job of than America. Their laws are generally much stiffer for crimes committed while under the influence, but their laws concerning your own body are much more liberal.

 

Let us burn one
from end to end
and pass it over
to me my friend
burn it long, we'll burn it slow
to light me up before I go

if you don't like my fire
then don't come around
cause I'm gonna burn one down
yes I'm gonna burn one down

my choice is what I choose to do
and if I'm causing no harm
it shouldn't bother you
your choice is who you choose to be
and if your causin' no harm
then you're alright with me

if you don't like my fire
then don't come around
cause I'm gonna burn one down
yes I'm gonna burn one down

herb the gift from the earth
and what's from the earth
is of the greatest worth
so before you knock it try it first
you'll see it's a blessing
and its not a curse

if you don't like my fire
then don't come around
cause I'm gonna burn one down
yes I'm gonna burn one down

-ben harper

 

Speed Limits are still enforced? After driving on the Tollway in Dallas, I thought they had given up on ticketing speeders.

 

There would be no savings because you still are going to spend the same amount to fight the other drugs that most realize need to be illegal. There isn't any weed money vs other drugs money and I think you'd have to spend the same amount. <i>If</i> pot were legalized, I don't see as much harm as the other drugs - though it is still not harmless (mainly because the body is not meant to take in and hold smoke) - but who is the judge of what drugs are legal? Only pot - again who says and why? Do you not think that in 20 years (or less) people will say hey coke isn't that bad and look at how many people are in jail because of it - really they are criminals - they are victims (and there is some truth in that statement) - so lets legalize it too.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 21:25 - The sign that things are not right.

 

i love that song. great lyrics.

 

Here's an article regarding the disparity between sentencing for Crack and Powder Cocaine. True, given the source (the dreaded ACLU) johnheath, et al, may discount the findings. But as I found a higher truth in his statement about pot and white kids, I hope ya'll can see the same here.

ACLU Urges End to Discriminatory Crack vs. Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity, Restore Rationality to Sentencing Policy

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today urged a Senate subcommittee to support the repeal of dramatic disparities in sentencing policy between crack and powder cocaine, saying that sentences for crack offenses are extraordinarily and unnecessarily harsh and must be lessened.€

"The sentences for crack offenses need to fall to a level in line with the punishments for powder," said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "There is no rational medical or policy reason to punish crack more severely than powder. Cocaine is cocaine."€

The sentencing disparity was the topic of a hearing this morning in the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE).€

The ACLU's King said that because of several factors, such as racially uneven enforcement patterns, reducing the sentencing disparity by increasing penalties for powder offenses - as some have supported - would only have the effect of putting more people of color behind bars. The only solution, King said, is to decrease sentences for crack offenses to a level in line with those for equivalent powder offenses.€

The sentencing disparity between the two forms of cocaine dates back to 1988 when Congress established a special sentencing exception for cocaine base or "crack." That year, Congress increased the penalties for the sale of crack cocaine so that a dealer with five grams of crack received the same punishment as a dealer who had 500 grams of powder cocaine, a disparity of 100-to-1. Congress also increased the penalty for simple possession of crack to five years. Before that time, the law did not distinguish between the punishment for powder and crack cocaine.€

According to past reports by the Sentencing Commission, the majority of people prosecuted for both crack and powder cocaine offenses have been people of color. Of the total of powder cocaine cases in 2000, 57 percent were brought against Latinos and 30 percent against African-Americans, even though the vast majority of powder cocaine users were white. Crack prosecutions are skewed even further toward racial and ethnic minorities.€

"Based on ignorance and media fueled hysteria," King said, "Congress has, for the last 14 years, tied the hands of federal judges by forcing them to impose unfair and extraordinarily harsh mandatory minimum sentences on crack users and dealers.€

"The effect of these draconian punishments has fallen primarily on people of color and ruined thousands of lives," King concluded. "Legislative action should not be determined by media hype."€

 

Someone wrote that JohnHeath is Trader-Jorge in another thread. This kills that proclamation.

 

Oh my lord. First, just take the amount of money spent prosecuting and incarcerating non-violent mar1juana possession cases and OF COURSE there would be savings. Huge ones.

The government would also place a huge sin tax on weed, which money could go toward rehab and treatment programs, prosecuting the war on other drugs or B-2 Bombers. It is beyond stupid to say nothing would change with the money.

And "who is the judge of what drugs are legal?" The lawmakers and the lobbies (specifically the alcohol and tobacco lobbies), that's who. "Only pot?" No, not only pot. How bout pot, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and various other legal drugs. Right now the only mind-altering drug which is legal is the one that virtually all health care professionals will tell you is more harmful to your health -- alcohol. "Who is the judge?" Everyone knows who it is and the reasons for it are beyond bogus. Cocaine is more similar to alchohol in every way except legal status than it is to pot.

Silliest non-political post of the year.

 

I was a statistic last year. I've never robbed anyone, never pawned anything, never caused trouble while smoking weed, yet I still did a month in lovely Harris County, seems fair huh?

 

Nope dude that sucks. I'm sorry you got busted. Mary Jane laws are bullsh!t.

 

Htown,

You had either a LOT of weed, or you were caught a bunch of time, either one is not too smart.



DD

 

I think you are mistaken...

Texas
Possession of Mary Jane
Amount: 2 oz or less
misdemeanor
Jail Time: 180 days
Fine: $2,000